Latest from the bricks-meet-clicks front, this one blending offline and online staffing businesses.

Kelly Services, the $5.6 billion employment agency with operations all over the world, is teaming up with Redwood City's oDesk, which draws from online temps all over the world, "to help large organizations integrate freelancers, working both locally and virtually via the Internet, into their flexible workforce."

That means a storied 67-year-old company headquartered in Michigan is looking to an 8-year-old Silicon Valley enterprise to take its next step into the digital world.

"We've been tracking what we call the free-agent workforce for the past 10 years," said Teresa Carroll, senior vice president and general manager of Kelly Outsourcing and Consulting Group, a division of Kelly Services. "The increase in project work, as well as talent shortages, require companies to look beyond historical channels to meet their needs. This is what our customers have been asking for."

Kelly will be able draw on oDesk's online stable of 4.5 million freelancers in 180 countries for any job that can be done online. ODesk, which claims to be the world's largest online temp agency, announced recently that its freelancers have earned over $1 billion, cumulatively. It has also received $44 million in investment from T. Rowe Price, along with Bay Area venture capitalists Benchmark Capital, Sigma Partnersand Globespan Capital Partners.

"There are new ways of working that enterprise companies aren't necessarily comfortable with. They're used to getting (temporary employees) in a box that they can trust. The deal with Kelly puts oDesk in the box these companies will feel more comfortable with," said oDesk Vice President of Business Development Matt Cooper. "It's a huge deal for us. It means crossing the chasm - bringing online work into the mainstream."

Look for more tie-ins like this. What Carroll calls the "free-agent workforce" - those who would rather not work in an office or be tied to one particular job - is estimated to be a $5 billion marketplace in the next five years.

"The world has gotten smaller with employers accessing people in the way they want," said Carroll. "Talent is a supply chain, and our job is to bring the best supply chain to our clients."

Getting it now: Add Stanford Shopping Center and Santa Clara's Valley Fair to the list of Bay Area malls offering same-day delivery in time for the Christmas rush.

Deliv, a Palo Alto startup specializing in crowdsourced same-day delivery, has struck a deal with Simon Property Group, which operates Stanford Shopping Center, and Westfield, which operates Valley Fair, to provide its service to shoppers. It announced a similar deal Thursday with Macerich and two of its malls in Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

That makes four major mall operators the year-old startup has signed up. Earlier this year, Chicago's General Growth Properties announced a partnership with Deliv, whose Uber-style drivers can be found at San Francisco's Stonestown Galleria, San Jose's Eastridge Mall and shopping centers that General Growth Properties owns in Los Angeles and Chicago.

"Same-day delivery is a new and developing trend in physical retail. The mall will be a critical element in this service," said Mikael Thygesen, chief marketing officer of Simon Property Group.

With eyes possibly on the future, Deliv noted that the four operators "manage over 660 malls including thousands of retailers across the country."

Solutions corner: More ideas on how to tackle the affordable housing crisis, these from the big daddy of urban planning and real estate organizations, the Urban Land Institute.

In a paper to be presented Friday, the institute's San Francisco branch, with input from branches statewide, recommends ways to fill the hole left by the demise of redevelopment agencies and the loss of what a working group member calls "any coherent set of tools to encourage infill development, build affordable housing and facilitate economic development in a smart and balanced fashion."

Key recommendations:

-- Give local governments more power to make sites available for development and speed up their remediation (cleanup) where necessary.